Educators ready for A-level results day
Students in post-16 education will be receiving their A-level results and diplomas tomorrow after two years of hard work.
It will be a moment of transition for sixth form and the Guernsey Institute College of Further Education students as they close this chapter and move onto future adventures.
Daniele Harford-Fox, principal of The Ladies’ College, said that results day always brought some of the most profound joy for educators.
‘Schools are beautiful and tightly-woven communities, so there’s a sweet sadness on results day which is very special,’ she said.
There’s a kind of teary joy that happens when you see students coming in with bags bigger than them, and they end up being extraordinary young people with such diverse voices who are ready to jump into the world.
‘Whatever happens on results day, you always feel attached to your school. It’s the place where you have moments of exploration and challenge that form the basis of who you become as a person.’
Staff at the island’s schools and colleges have spent the past couple of days packaging up the results ready for their students to collect this morning.
There are teams who will be at each school to help students with their next steps, celebrate with them, or to discuss options if things have not gone to plan.
‘As adults, we rarely have that same intensity of experience where you’ve put so much hard work into something which will have an impact on what you do for the next few years,’ said Ms Harford-Fox.
‘For some people, they’ll get exactly as they hoped and go on the path they visualised, for others it may be a path that they hadn’t anticipated, but we try to help young people realise what we know as adults, that different paths bring different opportunities, and there will be other beautiful things that come with the unexpected.
‘The world is less rigid than it was 10 years ago, and there are so many more opportunities and pathways for people.’
The college has found that more universities have been offering places through clearing, and it works with employers who are looking to recruit directly.
‘For schools and colleges, it’s a period of great flux, because until this point everyone has had a similar experience and suddenly they’re all going off and doing something different,’ said deputy principal, innovation and student development, Nick Dyson.
‘It’s a point of arrive and departure. For some people they’re off into an ever-changing world and it’s really exciting, but for others it may be tinged with a sadness of departure.’
